Kevin Magnussen will not be on the grid for the next round of the world championship after picking up five penalties in the space of 15 rounds.
He is the first Formula 1 driver to be barred from a round of the championship under the penalty points system which the FIA introduced 10 years ago.
Magnussen’s latest penalty, for a collision with Pierre Gasly, added two further points to the 10 he carried since the Miami Grand Prix in May. That took him to the threshold of 12 which results in an automatic ban.
Of Magnussen’s four previous penalties, three were also for collisions with other drivers. He received two points for his contact with Yuki Tsunoda in China and Logan Sargeant in Miami. His other collision, when he squeezed Alexander Albon into a barrier in Jeddah, was deemed serious enough to be worth three penalty points.
Magnussen also received three penalty points for an unusual series of incidents in the sprint race at the Miami Grand Prix. He was penalised four times for leaving the track and gaining an advantage as he tried to prevent Lewis Hamilton from overtaking him. Although the stewards have stopped giving penalty points for most track limits offences, they ruled Magnussen’s driving was “exceptional” on this occasion.
Were Magnussen’s five incidents enough to warrant a one-race ban? Or has the first application of the automatic ban for 12 penalty points showed the system is too harsh?
For
Of the five incidents Magnussen was penalised for, his Monza clash with Gasly was the least consequential. Unlike in China and Miami, he did not put his rival out of the race.
However it was another careless piece of driving which resulted in contact. The penalty points system exists to keep a track of drivers who persistently commit driving offences, which is exactly what it has done in Magnussen’s case.
Importantly, the stewards are supposed to issue penalties based on the incidents themselves, not on their consequences, which is why Magnussen did not receive a harsher penalty for causing collisions which resulted in retirements.
Against
Magnussen has committed some incidents worth of significant penalties this year, but taken together they are not serious enough to be worth banning him from a race.
In particular, his cornering-cutting antics in Miami may have been cynical but they were not dangerous. At Monza, the stewards should have been prepared to say ‘no harm, no foul’ and not penalise him for his inconsequential collision with Gasly.
Magnussen’s ban highlights the stewards’ inconsistency in applying penalty points. None were given to Gasly in Melbourne last year for rejoining the track unsafely and causing an avoidable collision, when doing so would likely have resulted in a ban for him.
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I say
Before Magnussen collected his last two penalty points I asked him whether he would modify his approach to racing to avoid triggering a ban. He said he would not: “It’s better to just go for it and then if I get a race ban, I get a race ban.”
So his present situation feels both inevitable and avoidable. The penalty points he was issued were supposed to motivate him to avoid similar incidents in future, but he did not.
I would have been strongly opposed to a driver being banned for collecting penalty points had it occurred when the stewards issued points for incidents as trivial as exceeding track limits. I felt this was unjust when it happened to F2 drivers in previous seasons.
It’s hard to quibble over most of the points given to Magnussen this season however, besides the strange incident in the Miami sprint race for which no clear precedent exists.
That said, there are now five more rounds on the calendar than when the penalty points system was introduced, plus an extra six sprint races per year. This has significantly increased the opportunity for drivers to collect penalty points, and the FIA should consider adjusting the system to take that into account.
You say
Does Magnussen deserve to be banned from the next round given the incidents he’s been involved in so far this season? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments.
Do you agree Kevin Magnussen deserves to be banned from the next race?
Strongly disagree (18%)
Slightly disagree (14%)
Neither agree nor disagree (5%)
Slightly agree (32%)
Strongly agree (32%)
Total Voters: 22
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